"The venom of those claws is indeed deadly, most of my body was temporarily paralysed by it. Thanks to Ben's superb medical skill, more than half of the venom had been successfully removed, if not, I don't think I would even be able to move my fingers for a single bit not to say sitting up like this." said the King.
"Ah... So... Would you be able to fully recover from it?" Rei asked, with a worried look.
"Well... I can't give you an exact answer but for the very least, I should be able to walk on my legs within two weeks if without any uncertainties." said the King in a casual manner as he took another piece of the dragon beard candy from the box.
Rei nodded without saying anything, her eyes were filled with remorse. Seeing Rei's remorseful look, the King put the dragon beard candy back into the box and patted Rei's head after he properly cleaned his hand.
"It's okay, don't worry, I will be fine." said the King with a gentle and reassuring tone, his eyes filled with care and emotions.
At that moment, both of them are having their own thoughts.
Rei is blaming herself for the King's current condition, after all, she was the primary reason that he was gravely injured. If the King is unable to fully recover, she will blame herself for a lifetime. And the King noticed those negative thoughts from Rei, thus, he is concerned and in dilemma.
"*knock* *knock*"
Just as the two continued sinking into their deep thoughts, someone knocked on the door, it's Ben.
"It's time for your acupuncture treatment," said Ben with a slightly awkward tone as he walked in with his work trunk, a young male servant was following his back.
"Ah... Right, I totally forgot about it... Uhm... Byako, can you escort Rei back to her room?" said the King, who suddenly sounds slightly unnatural.
"Meow." The white striped cat meowed, probably said yes.
"Ah... Yes... Holly must be looking for me right now, I shall take my leave." said Rei who carefully stood up with the support of her walking cane, despite no one mentioning anything, she caught a subtle strangeness from everyone's behaviour.
"Rei, I have left your medicine on your table, I will be seeing you later," said Ben as Rei walked passed him.
Rei nodded without saying anything, she was somewhat able to catch a slight fatigue from his tone. After slightly bowing to the King as well as Ben, Rei walked out of the room with Byako following her at her side...
***
After ensuring Rei had left the room, the King stared at the young male servant with a serious look.
"Go ahead, report everything you need to." said the King with a brief yet clear command.
"Yes, My Lord. First of all, please have a look at these." said the young servant as he pulled out a stack of papers from his sleeve.
"Ah... Although I am interested to know how the heck are you able to keep that whole stack of papers under your sleeve, but I shall keep it for next time. Hmm... If I am not mistaken, those are ledgers, right?" The King asked as he glanced at that stack of papers the young servant just placed on the tea table at his bedside.
"Yes, My Lord. These are the copies of the bookkeeping records from Prince Ya's palace for the previous three years." said the young servant.
"Hmm... I see. But don't you think that for three years of bookkeeping records, these are a bit too thin? If these are the bookkeeping records for a small store, this thickness is acceptable, but for a palace of a renowned and highly ranked Prince, who is the elder brother of the emperor as well as the diplomatic ambassador for the empire, this is just a bit too unacceptable." said the King as he started flipping that stack of ledgers.
"Yes, My Lord, I am indeed aware of that, which is why I decided I should copy down the whole thing and hope that it will provide any useful information." said the young servant.
"You did the right thing. A poorly recorded ledger is always a good source of all sorts of hidden information." said the King as he continued flipping through that stack of ledgers.
"Yes, indeed. So, have you briefly checked the record before presenting everything to us?" Ben asked.
"Yes, My Lord, I briefly saw through it and found a rather interesting detail." said the young servant.
"Oh? Tell us everything you found." said the King as he stopped flipping the ledgers.
"Yes, My Lord."
...
***
According to the young servant, he noticed a very weird detail from the bookkeeping records. For those three whole years, there isn't a single record of money spent on gifts or presents for the Emperor's and the Empress Dowager's birthday. By right, according to the etiquette of the Qin Empire, everyone from the royal family needs to attend the birthday banquet of the emperor and empress dowager, although there isn't a written rule that they need to gifts presents or whatsoever, but it is just kind of unusual and not making any sense to not prepare any present for those important events.
Yes, it is somewhat understandable that Prince Ya doesn't want to get himself involved in such a high-sounding yet meaningless royal family's matters or is too stingy to spend any money on these meaningless events, but from the bookkeeping records, he spent quite an amount of money to buy a pair of pure jadeite **baby boy and baby girl sculptures for Commandery Prince Shao's betrothal, which doesn't makes sense at all.
**Gifting baby boy and baby girl sculptures to newly betrothed or newly married couples is a form of blessing, wishing them to have children soon, which doesn't make sense for Prince Ya who yearned for the throne.
***
"Hmm? He bought a pair of baby sculptures for Commandery Prince Shao's betrothal? That's kind of unexpected. Did he not know that the Emperor had the intention to pass his throne to Commandery Prince Shao at that moment?" The King asked with a thoughtful look.
"No, My Lord, by right, that decision of the emperor should be quite recent. Thus I believe he would not know about it at that moment." said the young servant.
"Tsk... This makes things even weirder..." The King murmured...